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EU to consider DR Congo aid mission

The European Union will discuss sending a
humanitarian aid mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as
reinforcing UN peacekeepers there, Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign
minister has said.

In Brussels on Friday the 27 EU countries
will consider "rapidly setting up a humanitarian logistics mission"
to help people in the eastern area of the country, the minister said in a
statement.

An estimated 250,000 people have been
displaced by fighting between government troops and soldiers loyal to Laurent
Nkunda, a renegade General who says he is fighting to protect ethnic Tutsis and
to oust the government, reported Aljazeera.

Intense clashes in recent days and an
advance by Nkunda's troops have lead to a humanitarian crisis with displaced
people going without food and shelter.

Both the EU and the UN have been criticised
for their slow and inadequate response.

EU countries will also consider how the
United Nations peacekeeping mission, which at 17,000 troops is the UN's
largest, could be reinforced, the statement said.

Nkunda's men had swept to the outskirts of
a strategic crossroads town of Kanyabayonga in eastern North Kivu province by
Thursday where hundreds of government troops and UN peacekeepers are stationed.

They have also surrounded North Kivu's
capital, Goma, eastern DR Congo's main city, for the past two weeks, forcing UN
peacekeepers to send reinforcements to protect the city and its estimated
500,000-strong civilian population.

Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in the DR
Congo, said countries need to exert greater effort in sending more support to
the peacekeepers.

"It is clear that hundreds of
thousands of people in eastern Congo are not getting the protection they
desperately need... People have told us that they feel like they are the living
dead and that their lives no longer have any value.

"The world needs to show them that
that is not true, by redoubling their efforts to secure a ceasefire and by
providing immediate additional support to the UN peacekeepers," she said.